Shaping Cities Through Art and Design

Location

Aïshti Foundation and Columbia GSAPP present a panel discussion in which architects, designers, curators, critics, and journalists from the US, Europe, UAE, and Lebanon will discuss the critical role of architecture and art in shaping the design of cities, in Beirut and around the world.

When architecture is discussed as part of the transformation of any city today—whether the rebirth of an ancient urban center or the rapid transformation of a new global capital—it is often characterized as a symptom as much as a cause. Broader political, economic, or cultural shifts—from a civil war to the development of a new industry to the burgeoning of an art scene—are understood as the drivers of urban change of which architecture is merely one physical reflection. The discussion will explore and articulate the active roles that architecture and design themselves can play as agents of urban transformation.

Please note: this event takes place at the Aïshti Foundation in Beirut.